2 English Idioms about LIKE Advanced English vocabulary lesson

hi i’m vanessa from speak english with

vanessa calm happy valentine’s day today

we’re going to talk about two idioms

that you can use to talk about things or

activities that you like let’s get

started

even though valentine’s Day is usually

focusing on couples and romantic love

we’re human so we like a lot of other

things as well

we like activities we like things in our

lives so let’s talk about the first

idiom that you can use to talk about

something that you like what do you

think goes in this cup hmm they could

put a lot of things in this cup but

typically we put tea in this cup

this style of cup is called a mug but

for today’s expression we’re gonna say

cup because that is our idiom today you

might say English is my cup of tea even

if you don’t like tea you can still use

this idiom you can’t really say English

is my cup of coffee or English is my

glass of wine it’s a little bit strange

so we need to keep this expression with

tea it’s my cup of tea you can use this

idiom in a lot of different situations

you might say swimming is my cup of tea

it means I like swimming but because

you’re probably beyond a beginner

English Learner you want to expand your

vocabulary and use richer type

expressions like this one so of course

you can say I like swimming I like

English but let’s use this idiom instead

English

my cup of tea swimming is my cup of tea

so can you use this idiom my cup of tea

to talk about someone maybe you want to

talk about your boyfriend or your wife

or your best friend or your mom you want

to say he is my cup of tea you can say

that and it’s not too strange but this

means that they are the best person for

you they are exactly what you’re looking

for so maybe for swimming swimming is my

cup of tea this is the best activity for

you it’s the perfect fit so if we use

this for a person make sure that this

person is really special to you because

if it’s just an acquaintance or someone

you don’t know that well it’s a little

bit too strong so save this expression

to talk about people who are really

important to you or you can use it to

talk about activities or things you like

eating is my cup of tea

traveling is my cup of tea beautiful

let’s talk about the second idiom the

second idiom has nothing to do with

drinks or tea or cups do you know what a

little road is called a little path if

you live in a big city you probably have

a lot of buildings side-by-side and in

between two buildings is sometimes a

little path maybe it goes to the back of

the building or to another street

this little road has a special name do

you know what it is it’s Allie Allie and

that is part of today’s expression you

might say English is up my alley up my

alley

and again this means I like English it

is the perfect fit for me traveling to

new countries

up my alley if I could choose any

vacation I would choose traveling

because it’s up my alley it’s the

perfect fit for my personality for my

interest it’s up my alley and just to

let you know this expression is a little

weird if we use it to talk about someone

so I don’t recommend saying my wife is

up my alley or my parents are up my

alley it’s it’s a little bit weird so if

you want to talk about someone I

recommend using the first idiom my cup

of tea

they are my cup of tea they’re the

perfect fit so for this idiom up my

alley let’s talk about quickly how to

use this in a negative way because there

are things that we don’t like to do so

let’s talk about it negatively in my

house it’s my job to do the dishes and

it’s my husband’s job to do the laundry

and why is that well we came to the

conclusion that it’s not up my alley

to do the laundry and then my husband

hates doing the dishes it’s not his cup

of tea to do the dishes I don’t mind

doing the dishes and he doesn’t mind

doing the laundry it’s not my favorite

activity but we decided to share the

household chores because the other

activity was not up our alley so we are

exchanging and so far so good

in this little story I said that doing

the laundry is not up my alley

doing the laundry is not my cup of tea

or we could talk about my husband and

say doing the dishes is not up his alley

doing the laundry is more up his alley

than doing the dishes it’s not a fun

activity but it’s okay so I hope from

this lesson you saw how to use these in

a positive way in a negative way and how

express yourself with a more rich

vocabulary and now I have a question for

you

what is something that is your cup of

tea and what is something that is up

your alley try to use these two idioms

in the comments below this video

and let’s learn from each other let’s

take a look at all of the sentences and

share what we’ve learned thanks so much

for learning with me and I’ll see you

the next time bye the next step is to

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see you later

bye